Expert shares skills to aid treatment of those hurt in Ukraine conflict

A SWANSEA-BASED expert in managing chest injuries has shared her skills with physiotherapists treating frontline troops and civilian casualties in Ukraine.

- JAMES ARNOTT Print editor [e-mail]

Rescuers walk amid wreckages of cars near warehouse after a ballistic missile attack.

(GLOBAL IMAGES UKRAINE)

Dr Ceri Battle is a consultant physiotherapist in Morriston Hospital who has carried out extensive research into blunt wall chest trauma.

After hosting virtual training sessions with physios in Ukraine, Dr Battle was invited to attend a conference in the city of Lviv to deliver two presentations and a hands-on skills masterclass.

Getting there meant a flight to Warsaw and a 10-hour bus journey, during which she met three other UK-based experts travelling to the conference.

Although Lviv is close to the Polish border and deemed relatively safe, the conference was held in a hotel basement, and delegates had to download a phone app that would sound an alert in the event of an air raid.

"I had really mixed emotions," said Dr Battle. "I was excited, but I knew I was going into a conflict zone. When I was flying into Poland, the airspace was closed because the Russians had gone in that morning."

Dr Battle has for many years been involved in research focusing on people sent home from emergency departments after chest injuries - which, while relatively minor, can lead to serious, even fatal complications.